


Short stories

by Skepsis_Forever



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - Fandom, Firefly, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mass Effect, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: 2517, 3rd millennium, Alternate Universe - Firefly Verse, Alternate Universe - First Contact, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Mass Effect Fusion, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Archeoxenologists, Chaos corruption, Citadel Council, Crossover, Grimdark, Imperium (Warhammer 40000), Mirror Universe, No Reapers, No Shepard, Not drabble, Original Character(s), Some Swearing, Thessia, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-09 23:12:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2001687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skepsis_Forever/pseuds/Skepsis_Forever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some short stories and crossovers I've have in mind, but I haven't gotten beyond the first chapter. Consider them one-shots, none of the chapters will be in the same world unless directly mentioned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

World designation: IOC2099FCW.

Xover participants: Mass Effect, Warhammer 40000.

It had been a momentous occasion. Relay 314 had been opened, ushering a new era of colonization and discovery, of old and new civilizations. The Council had made the momentous decision as result of pressure that could be traced over hundreds of years, even recently after the end of the Rachni Wars, including by the Asari who had lived those horrors themselves. The argument was that they shouldn't lock up and close their parts of the Galaxy, and shun the gifts of the Protheans because of one bad luck species. Because weren't the relays the ones the brought together the current galactic community? Did not species that, independent from the current Citadel Council, dare to venture into space and open ("tamper") with Mass Relays and thus found each other and bettered themselves? Many had seen the hundreds of years of unactivated relay policy as an enforced stagnation over the current nations. No more.

There was one small snag. This relay, 314 as it was numbered from times by many forgotten, had its counterpart in the Batarian territory. The Turians or Asari would have loved to start expanding and exploring through their own terms, but for reasons of logistics 314's counterpart was chosen instead.[1] More interestingly even, the first survey into Relay 314's system showed a vibrant garden world, and the Batarians had claimed it, as the law allowed them to. They were also happy for the presumably good image they expected for cooperating with the Council and ushering this new era of discovery. Of course, there were voices that the Batarian filth should not pollute another world with their "economy" and "culture" and that if anyone, the Asari could tend to a garden world far better, and it was not forgotten what the Batarians had turned the last world that the Quarians had landed into. They hadn't particularly destroyed it or its environment, but they had turned it into mountains of city-states and, some claimed, another great hub of slave trading. Now, another world would follow.

Still, for all its wants, it was still an official and joyous occasion, at which delegates, as well as symbolic military mights of most Citadel races entered the relay, along with diplomats of various races, each in their most treasured Dreadnaught. The members of the Council itself had joined, for the one few times not showing unity for convenience sake and each arriving with their own symbolic fleets. If one were to be cynical (and possibly Batarian), one would think the message was that even if the Hegemony was allowed to spread on another world, if they felt out of line, they would be driven back to their homeworld and bombed into the stone age with their slavery backwardness. Few would voice such views, however.

However, upon arriving in close distance to the planet, they were in for a surprise. It seemed since the last times the scans were done, there was some... development. The planet was now swarming with what appeared to be frigates pack full of guns, blocky, crude and either of a black or dark red color.

After the franticness of this apparent first contact scenario began to die down, stronger scans were ordered and the members of the expedition could now see the shape and... decorations of these vessels. Some had a reverse anvil-like forward prow, while others what appeared to be the heads of great beast of horror. The color of the ships began to diversify as the sensors penetrated their shields, although how could they all have initially looked black was a mystery to most of the scientists. Some were indeed pure black with raging red helmeted and horned maws painted on them. Others were blue, with curvy and sometimes tree-like sticks painted in the middle. Others yet were pink or purple or multicolor, with symbols on them of races that were obviously engaging in some very intimate and apparently very painful actions. The worst were those that seemed to be _rotting_ , not merely an illusion, but confirmed by sensors that stated, impossibly, that the hulls were inhabited by organisms that thrived both in the vacuum of space and possibly fed from radiation. The green, _rotting_ ones looked uninhabited and completely irradiated, definitely not by an intelligent being, yet time observing them showed them to confirm to the pattern of the other ships.

Instead of being horrofied, the Asari and Salarians were absolutely thrilled. To have found a budding civilization that colonized a world they had barely come a short time ago was amazing. Furthermore, their technology appeared to be primitive (no eezo of course), but interesting in its own way. The scientists were already picking up some sort of subspace disturbance that didn't correspond to anything they'd seen before, and that was almost certainly unrelated to eezo. By the Goddess, Tevos thought, they may have an alternative to building or even using faster-than-light travel to eezo!

As they continued to scan the ships and atmosphere, more and more disturbances became obvious. Especially since, even if the original scanning of the system and planet were not thorough and some time ago (it took time to prepare such an incursion), those disturbances were not at all present, and now seemed to be centered around the alien ships, but also in key points of the planet. In geometric near impossible and sometimes uninhabitable places of the planet.

It was also obvious that these disturbances were influencing the laws of physics. Rejected some of the known ones in some places, replaced them with new and unprecedented ones in others. Suddenly, eezo seemed to have lost all its mystic attributes and became tame compared to what they were witnessing. As an Asari scientist poetically put it, "they were raping the fabric of space time, and it was a miracle they weren't sucked into a black hole of their own unintended making. Or in a temporal paradox. On the slightly amusing if not terrifying note, we might actually get to see the latter here sooner or later. Judging from these readings, in physical form."

The Turians were advising caution, but they didn't have much of a choice.

Their situation became obvious to Tevos and their allies after the gushing over the new had come. They had appeared in their system, with half a dozen dreadnaughts. And colonists ready to populate the world for the Batarian Hegemony.

Well damn.

Tevos reluctantly opened a channel to the Batarian ruler, who stood dumbfolded looking at the screens and tactical readout of what they had just encountered. Tevos didn't knew much about Batarian physiology, but she was pretty certain that she'd never seen such a pale specimen of his race.

"What is the meaning of this?" He said in a light whisper, mountains of rage suppressed.

After no one answered, for the obvious was staring them in the face and all but answering back itself, he began reaching for straws. "The Quarians again? Must be. They found some ancient civilization's technology, opened up a dormant relay behind our back... locked it up again... and then they colonized OUR planet. AGAIN! HOW DARE THEY? HOW DARE THEY?!" He screamed at those around him.

Tevos had to put a stop to this madness as fast as possible. "You know full well they can't be Quarians. We'd have heard something about it. This is first contact. Let's not screw it up."

"First contact? FIRST CONTACT?! THEY TOOK OUR PLANET! OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE! BECAUSE YOU WERE COMPLACENT! BECAUSE YOU KEPT US FROM TAKING THE WORLDS THAT WE DESERVED! YOU WANT **US** TO NOT SCREW IT UP? It's already screwed up." He took a pause that gave Tevos the chills for the future. Then he replied in eery calm. "There is only one thing we do to intruders, the same that we did to the damn suit rats. Exterminate the vermin!"

He said that last line like an order, although none of his ship's crew complied. Tevos stared at him. He said it as if he'd mean it. To start a war, to subjugate these people. He was smarter than that, wasn't he? The consequences of such an action would be irredeemable. They'd never get another world to colonize, and _they'd_ be the one scurried from a planet they got to first, but claimed by their better. He wouldn't start a war for ego, would he?

Looking at him, she realized he was serious. He _would._

"You'd really-" But as was cut off as the Batarian leader yelled to his officers. "Give the oder to the Batarian fleet. We move to take what's ours! We move to take our garden world!"

"The Citadel Council will not support you in this madness!" Tevos roared back. A few seconds later, the watching council members entered the transmission and confirmed they'd be backing Tevos.

"Then we don't need your Council! You've been putting our culture down for too long! It's time for the Batarian people to be free to choose their own destiny!" He roared, unaware or uninterested of the irony in such a statement for a slaver people. "Attack! Wipe them out! We only take... prisoners from the world or from ships only if it's an easy boarding! This is war!"

The councilors stood dumbfolded, unable to articulate - or even to think - any reply to what had happened. The damn Batarian could start another Rachni War, incited by them. And the council would be seen as colluding, since they'd had brought their ship in the system.

Yes, they could engage, but the combined might of the ships of the other races was equal to that of the Batarians. The Batarians had come to take and _hold_ a world, from pirates, from the Turians if needed be for whatever reason. They'd had brought half their fleet with them, as both a show of force and a statement that this system was theirs and not some petty pirate warlord's, be that even "mighty" Aria herself. The Dreadnaughts would make headway, certainly, but it'd be a massacre. They'd be nullifying each others' forces, but that would mean the Councilors' death. Tevos didn't fear death, and she was sure her fellows didn't either, but they couldn't let their governments be beheaded by the Batarians, even if they'd behead themselves in the process. The Citadel Races had left specifically their warfleets in their territories in case someone tried anything in their absence, that's why they risked gathering for something like this.

Besides, Tevos had insisted that as many high officials be present for such an occasion. It was a great PR, although nobody there needed it, but besides the fact that it was ingrained in her genes, she thought that such a show of unity would create a great morale boost. Now it was turning against them.

Sparatus, the Turian councilor, must have realized the same, because even the young, hotheaded warrior hesitated before he'd put the lives of civilians on the line to save some unknowns. Even if it would end up in a second Rachni War, at least they'd have their greatest minds still alive to hopefully fix things. Besides, despite his training and his genes, a voice that had been inbeded in his kind since they had met the Asari and had witnessed the Krogan Rebellions told him that they were protectors, not war-mongers. If the Krogan had taught the galactic community anything (and they had inadvertantly taught them _many_ things, including the fact that Salarians were bastards when it came to warfare, and even the seemingly most unbeatable force could be destroyed by unfair play), it was that the Turians never were and would never be the monsters the Krogans of those times were. The Krogans showed to the Turians their place as galactic protectors more than the Asari thought themselves responsible of doing.

So with a heavy heart, he decided to look helplessly for guidance to Tevos.

Who knew she had only one thing to do. She turned to the communication officer.

"Try to send my words to this new species and let us hope they understand. Sooner or later."

The officer nodded, and seconds later Tevos began to speak. "Greetings, I am Councilor Tevos of the Citadel Council. I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but at this moment, there is a hostile force gathering to your newest colonized world. We urge you to evacuate and run, but if you decide to fight, know that we will be on your side. Unfortunately we cannot do this yet, but know that those creatures that come for you do not represent the galactic community. We are not like them. We want to have peace. Our prayers reach for your safety."

She turned to the scientists. "Did you get a sample of their language yet? Communication method? Anything about their culture? Anything?" She desperately asked.

"No ma'am. They seem to use short radio waves to communicate between ships, though pushed somehow at amazing speeds, possibly way beyond the speed of light. However, for some reason, they dissipate around a very small area of effect. We don't even get garble, we don't get anything, we just see those signals... existing for a fraction of the time they should, then they reach their destination and leave no trace after." Said a puzzled Salarians.

"Goddess help us all." She whispered.

A few seconds later, the communications officer seemed to be jolted from her seat by an invisible electrical current. "Ma'am... I mean Miss... I mean Councilors... I mean... we detect something that may be an answer. It talks in the Asari language. It's attached to a video message. Do you want me to put it through to the screen?" Though a redundant question, Tevos nodded absently and thought nothing of the officer's naivity. That was protocol after all and in such a situation, it was admirable for someone to follow it to the letter, whatever the circumstances.

A large, Asari-Batarian unholy combination appeared on the screen. It had thick muscles, red skin and red eyes with jet-black hair. The first thought one had when looking at it logically was "burly", the second, a lot more irrationally, was "unholy". It had two eyes, a mouth, nose, arms and two legs, but that's where the similarities with the Asari (altough an especially ugly one that most of the Citadel races were sure Asari genes could not produce naturally) ended. It had two arms where an Asari would have them, but one more on the left without a corresponding right one. Though the uneducated in biology would speculate the purpose for which it evolved, an evolutionist would simply look at it and say it wasn't created by nature for a purpose, and they'd subsequently deduce it was a random, rare mutation, as had been seen _rarely_ from other species overexposed to radiation. However, it did not take more than one glance around the creature's surroundings to tell that that arm was both a mutation, and was nothing unique for the creature's species. For apparently melded with their stations, Asaroids of different shapes, sizes and numbers of body parts would writhe, some apparently in extasy or excruciating pain, uncertain from one creature to the other and from one moment to the other. There were... unbound creatures aboard, some only slightly deviating from the Asaroid forms, though from mere visually examining the individuals, it became apparent that if this species had a base form, it was similar to the Asari, except they had fur on their heads, MANY different skin colors (as to not be certain which, if any, was _normal_ for a supposed base lifeform of this species) and - if some were indication - had actual fur on some other parts of their bodies, or at least this was vestigal fur returned randomly with the mutations.

More interesting to the Salarian scientists however were the _green-skinned, apparently rotting_ Asaroids that manned their stations as if nothing was wrong with them. This would solidify their theory that the _green, rotting_ ship they had witnessed was very likely manned by similar creatures in similar patterns to their... non-infected brethren. How this species could survive such mutations and symbiosis with an apparently very aggresive _disease that occasionally made skin literally crawl off of them_ was a mystery they were eager to untangle. However, the view of such skin frollicking to its own devices behind the apparent captain of the vessel curbed even the enthusiasm of the Asari and Salarians, and almost made many Turians wretch. To them, these were abominations that may come back to haunt them if they were left to join the Galactic Community.

Sparatus looked wearily at Tevos to see her reaction, noticing surprise, fascination, maybe even awe, but tempered by revulsion. Well, at least she wasn't blind to it, he thought. He was however quickly becoming depressed that they'd be welcomed with open hands in the galaxy for their "unique culture". Dammit, women, unique doesn't mean good or useful!

The creature seemed to smile and leere, and there was a scary glint in its eye. Almost like a Krogan. It couldn't be, they must have imagined or interpreted-

"Four-eyes coming?" It said through a gurgle, a long, bifurked tongue licking its apparently chewed up lips. Oh yes, that definitely pointed to the creature being as eager for carnage as a Krogan. The rational parts of their mind told them that it was also troubling that it spoke a perfect Asari - well, perfect words, not so much syntax, and that they were technically talking in real time. This was turning into a paradox, and some of the viewers' mind turned to the comment of the scientist claiming physically viewable paradoxes.

"You knew of them?" Tevos replied, shocked.

The thing gurgled, seemed to cough? No, it _laughed_ , laughter growing higher and higher, chilling the viewers as much as the first view of the creature had. This was _not_ how Tevos imagined first culture with an intelligent species, for they had shown way too many signs of intelligence in a very short amount of time.

"Gods tell priests of them, priests tell us. Four-eyes shall come, and there will be much rejoicing!" It said cheerfully, showing uneven and unevenly colored teeth. "Rejoicing in slaughther for our enemies! Neighbours, humph! Chaos no like them. Chaos no choose them. Chaos choose US! These OUR lands. They come at will of Gods to feed Gods. AND SO WE SHALL FEED THEM!" It roared at the end, followed by shrieks - of panic, of acceptance, of agreement, of fear, or pain? - from what looked to be the crew. "Now, in centuries, millennia, they neighbors, they'd come if we talk with you before or no." It grinned again. "Now they come by our rules. To our traps. TO THEIR DEATHS!" The screetch of the crew could be heard again, this time making it more obvious that they were agreeing with the creature.

Then, it abruptly stopped, and looked at them with a burning hate in its eyes that made all by the ambasadors recoil - there was knowledge there, twisted, unearned but learned, knowledge that no creature should have the right to collect in a lifetime, not even an Asari - and assessed them with a ironically cold-burning stare. "You no interfere. If you no want conquer by us, you stay there and enjoy show. You let us feed Gods. Who knows, maybe Gods find you worthy. Or maybe find four-eyes worthy. No matter. We fight for the will of the Gods. For the Glory of Chaos Undivided! For the Imperium of Chaos and humanity!"

And with these words, the communication to what was later deduced to be just one of the frigates of the thousands circling the planet ended.

* * *

The four entered the Presidium.

"Council members." Growled the red-armored female. "Before we negotiate, we have come with a play describing our pasts and futures made by our priests."

The three Council members didn't react outwardly, though they were surprised. This is how they introduced themselves, then? Through poetry and scenic rhytms? Sparatus could almost hear "Culture" ringing in the Asari's head, and he suppresed a growl. Sure enough, when he took a furitive look at Tevos, she looked as happy as getting a weird-Asari holiday gift. He could almost hear the word "Culture" in the minds of Asari every minute, and it sickened him. Could not they be more practical? Could they not be blinded by abstract promises of past behaviour and actually think of _their own skin_?

Tevos answered for all of them, although neither the Salarian or the Turian would have objected. They knew enough that they could learn and understand the message from this play of this culture of theirs. "We would love to listen to it." Tevos beamed at the four of them.

"Good." The red one growled. "We must start at the beginning. At the beginning, there was Chaos."

"But then it was calmed. Multiple times." The blue one said, sadly.

"A different tale for a later time, brother." Said the androgynous one.

"Too true, sister." Gurgled the green on.

The red one looked at them pointedly, seeming to be just about to attack them, but then looked at the Presidium again. "True. But when humanity saw it, it would not be becalmed. No more. It would not be _lobotomised_ anymore from the presence of the feeble material world."

"But someone tried to, anyway." Te blue sighed.

"The Would-Be-Emperor." Red growled.

"The Corpse Emperor." Pinky giggled.

"The Fake Emperor." The diseased one finished.

"You did say Corpse Emperor, didn't you, sister?" Asked the blue one apparently innocent enough, though his teeth told a different story.

"Indeed I said, brother." She giggled again.

"The fool wanted to stop the glory of Chaos!" Growled red.

"Why couldn't he be friends with us?" Pouted the diseased one, and even seemed sincere in his assessment.

"He wanted to lie to us." Ironically proclaimed the follower of the Great Deceiver.

"He wanted to keep us sane." Growled red.

"He wanted to keep us chaste." Giggled pink.

"But most of all, he wanted to dictate his rules upon life and physics." Said the green one.

"So we gave him what he wanted." Said red with a savage smile.

"In a manner of speaking." Corrected or completed blue.

"In another time and place, he was meant to make cheap copies of himself, to conquer the stars with them from the secrets stolen from our Gods." Grounded Red.

"He was supposed to guide humanity with his soul through the stars." Said blue michieviously.

"Well..." Pink gave a cruel smile unbefitting of her demeanour.

"Chaos is nothing else but kind to all living beings." Pitched in green with the same face that told the opposite.

"We gave him what he wanted." Growled red.

"We bound his soul to his device, so he will always guide us. We give him souls, so he will never truly die. We give him power, so one day he will become what he never wanted. A new Chaos God. Such is the will of Chaos."

"My master gave him pain everlasting. How nice of him-her-it, isn't it?" Batted her eyelids lasciviously pink.

"My master gave him immortality, for what else is he but not kind to all living things?" Pitched in green.

By this time, the Councilors were listening attentively. There was a warning in this, obviously, un-subtly masked by riddles and appearences of good will. This was the ultimate punishment to their religion's greatest heretic. The cruelest supposed kindnesses ever imagined. To turn someone into an immortal god, while trampeling all he believed in and torturing him for eternity.

"And so we flew to the stars by the will of Chaos, and we are here." Bowed and made a flourish blue.

"But that is not all." Growled Red.

"No, we were told sooooooo many things." Giggled pink.

"Terrible things." Said savagely red.

"Horrible things." Said almost bored blue.

"Wonderful things." Finished green.

"We were told of a feeble race, who thought themselves the saviours of the Galaxy. Foolish xenos as they were, they created a race of machines that went against them and decided to cull the races of the Galaxy every 50.000 years so they would not make abominable intelligences that would go against them again." Said red with venom.

"When we heard..." Sighed blue, though his action seemed fake.

"We rejoiced! We laughed so hard and we danced and we threw parties and and..." blabbered pink, twirling around, giggling and laughting hysterically. This put many of the viewers off-balance.

"To know that such blood was spilled... glorious!" Said with savage delight red.

"All life dies, but that is the way of things." Said green.

"But then they told us they were no more. No more cycles. No more murder. No more death. And without this, change would be harder to achieve, wouldn't it?" Said sadly blue.

"We were outraged! We believed in the Gods, and this is how they treat us? How dared they? We deserved to battle with the destroyers of Protheans and countless other species before! We deserved to be sweapt under the tide of blood, only the greatest worriors worthy of mighty Khorne! We deserved our prolongued and bloody extinction, draging as many of them to the hells of the warp!"

"But alas, we were told more truth. And sadly truth it is. Because they were stopping Chaos from setting a footing in this universe." Declared blue solemny.

"They did not kill in pleasure." Said sadly pink.

"They did not kill in anger!" Roared red.

"They did not change the Galaxy as it should, for they left their Mass Effect and Relays as traps for the races of the new cycles to conform to the same technology they could easily destroy." Said blue sadly.

"And death did not call upon my master because... I have no bleedin' clue, it shoul've worked, governer, shouln't it?" Said green, getting withering looks from the others at which he simply smiled like a kid and waved at them.

"But we were told of the four-eyes! Glorious battle we have with them, wiping them out! Truly the Gods favor us!" Said savagly and happily red.

"And they have told us so many secrets of you." Said blue mischiviously.

"And the Asari... love so much." Winked pink.

"And the knowledge of so much death in your ranks... to birth so much life after..." Green cried a big, fat ball of puss from his eye, caressing it gently on his finger and then gulping it down, along with the finger.

"So know us, Citadel! Know us who are better than you, stronger than you, meaner than the Krogan! Know us followers of Chaos Undivided!" Roared red.

"As we know about your hidden Prothean technology cache from blue friends to blue friends." Winked blue. Tevos paled visibly, but said nothing.

"As we know that it was not the frogs, but the vultures that ordered the lizards to be neutered." Giggled pink. Sparatus raised an eyebrow, but they all heard the Salarian's distinctive gulp. Maybe they would think it was because he thought his time to be exposed would come _next_. But even that secret...

"As we know that the frogs are closer allies of the lizards than any believ. Being that one of them is destined to cure them and let them choose their own destiny once again in the future." Completed Green.

"We know what you are, and what you want, and you will not get it!" Screamed red from all her lungs. Bale fire started forming around her from the pure rage of her feelings. "You wish to kneel us to your culture, as you have done to countless others! We'd prefer to die in battle against unbeatable machines than renounce our Gods and their glory!"

"Know that Khorne does not care from whence the blood flows, only that it does!" She screemed, raising her axe and pointing its hilt in the metal floor, _melting it_ and discharging more ethereal energy.

"Know that Tzeench has use of you for his plot as he has for me." Smiled amicably blue, but it was visible from the eyes that there was nothing understanding in his soul. He left his stick drop slowly still holding it in his hand, but it penetrated the metal nonetheless without a care.

"Know that Slaanesh will always open his-her-its arms to those that love pleasure." Said pink lasciviously, and dropped a pendant representing in the human sign the two genders and let it enter the metal too.

"Know that all life is precious to Papa Nurgle." Said the green one. He coughed what appeared to be bugs, which dug their way into the metal floor. " _All_ life."

"Glory to humanity and the Imperium of Chaos! Glory to the Gods of Chaos and their followers! Glory to Chaos Undivided!" They yelled in unison, the psychic scream entering the minds of every living being in the Galaxy in their own language, be they watching the transmission or not.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [AU] Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance Cruiser Firebreaker has to keep the 'verse safe from the blind assaults of the Rim worlds inhabitants, Reavers and worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a fan of the Alliance as it is in the Firefly original 'verse, but something the Operative said in the movie got me thinking. Those lines about the Alliance being the good guys and Malcolm Reynolds not being the plucky hero, which in the end even he had to admit to himself were full of it. But it got me wondering, what would such a 'verse where the Alliance was the good guys and the Independents were as vile as propaganda dictates be like? Where would Mal find himself? How different would be the rest of the characters? This is my answer so far.
> 
> I don't know how soon I'll continue with this, but feedback would be appreciated.

* * *

World designation: FF2599FB.

Participants: Firefly.

* * *

Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance cruiser _Firebreaker_ stood at the viewport of his ship, contemplating his past and admiring the 'verse, as he was prone to do when there were no immediate captain-y things to do.

He was proud of his station in the 'verse and in the Alliance, having gotten to where he was through his idealist streak and will to bring rightness and justice to any who needed it. When he was young, he had been a rebellious teen with no fear of God, but the war with the vile browncoats had made him reconsider his position in the 'verse. From the glory hound that joined the War on the Alliance's side emerged the God-fearing Captain of an Alliance cruiser, one of the pride and joys of the law-abiding known 'verse.

His mind drifted through the known and true history of the 'verse where the Alliance was created between the United States and China to save humanity, how they had tried to save other cultures and knowledge, but how they were rejected and laughed upon. How eventually, they set upon the stars by themselves and found habitable worlds, and made habitable paradises of those that didn't fit the criteria. A new beginning, just and without sin, had emerged from humanity's tumultuous nature, and for a time, there was piece, understanding and freedom. Of course, there were those that tried to take advantage of the new colonists, but the Alliance, just and fair and always involving itself for the welfare of its law-abiding citizens, had intervened and stopped more than a few injustices.

Then it got worse. Though Earth-that-was had became almost unlivable and those remaining who refused the benevolence of the Alliance's transports off-world, humanity persevered even there, and became even more perverted. Societies fell to a tribe-like state and mentality, though some preserving the knowledge of space flight and construction of more advanced technologies. While the Alliance progressed at a steady pace, it was something to be said about easy living dulling the human mind. Alas, the great rulers of the Alliance had seen this, but they did not have the heart to lower humanity's comfort for its own good, and justly so, Malcolm thought.

But the tribal space-faring populations of Earth-that-was eventually found their way to the Alliance borders, and colonized on their ways there, making Earth practically untouchable to the Alliance now. The Alliance now realized what mistake it had made by letting live those that would most surely become their bitter enemies, but alas, it was too late to do anything about it. Only to save the good parts of humanity and seal themselves from the barbarians.

At first, the incursions were minor and few, tribal Earthlings content to settle the Rim sections, effectively surrounding the Alliance. The Alliance had welcomed their fellow humans with open arms, but the Rim people held generations' worth of hatred and bitterness towards the ones they were now told abandoned their ancestors to their doom. The tensions and misunderstandings were even more fueled by the lack of a Cortex or Alliance presence on the Rim planets - after all, the Rimers wanted to be left alone, and their Alliance brothers complied, except with the often sent medical aids and food supplies, to which the Rimers were often ungrateful, or if so, bitterly so, thinking them a way in which the Alliance would wish to control them - as well as misinformation intentionally spread by power-hungry maniacs who kept the small populations in check. Small little kings of small little hills, Malcolm mused one of River's phrases, and this fit these techno-barbarians.

As time progressed, the Rimers started raiding more and more outer core worlds of the Alliance, and often each other, often not bothering with building necessities when they could easily steal them at gun point and have fun with the captives in the process. The Alliance had set upon the stars with hope in its heart, for humanity, and had "armed" their ships more for the fight with the nature of outer space than with any intelligent life out there, and especially didn't except to fight humanity itself. Thus, the first shots of what would later be called "the Independent war" were fired on an unsuspected Alliance with a population devoted to peace and unaccustomed to the harshness of their brethren they had left behind.

The war waged on for years, and this taught Malcolm the meaning of life and camaraderie. He quickly advanced through the ranks, being seen as a hero by whoever met him, Alliance or Independent.

The battle of Serenity, though welcomed that it had finished the war, was the worst of Malcolm had seen in his life. Towards the end, people were dying, on both sides, and when the ceasefire was called, he parted medicine to Alliance and Independents alike. This was a bigger blow to the image of the Independents then the browncoats could imagine, since Malcolm had given them a glimpse of the goodness, righteousness and fairness of the Alliance in regard to human life. Malcolm had tried to evacuate as many people as possible, be their clothes' color purple or brown, but the Independents blockaded the planet. Only medical ships could enter the space, most being from the Alliance, and not few of them having been shot down by the still-warring browncoats. After all, their leaders had seen the war was all but over, and that their people would be tended well by the Alliance, maybe too well, and that their former meatshield would become unwanted enemies. So the more they could kill on either side, the less they had to fear in the future.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Independents were blockading the planet and negotiating for their own skin while they left - or facilitated - hundreds to die. Malcolm could still remember the shocked faces of those browncoats on the ground when they saw artillery from their own site shooting down or trying to medical ships of the Alliance. He remembered the triage, of the scared people who had believed their leaders' lies that the Alliance would execute them all, and keep their local leaders as playthings and information gathering, while the Alliance had only tried to help them, give them new clothes, even new homes on the Core planets. Many had gratefully, though suspiciously agreed, while few others had left their own way, with a new-found, albeit grudging respect for the Alliance.

Then the new released Independent leaders proved the lesson of Earth-that-was once again, that those who you don't let die, won't let you live. They became leaders of terrorist cells, bombing buildings of civilians almost indiscriminately, sometimes hitting former comrades. Of course, the official browncoat line - or rather lie - was that they had targeted traitors that had sold out Independent secrets that needed to be silenced, merely because they had agreed to a better life for them and for their families on the safe core worlds of the Alliance.

The worst of these attacks was Miranda. An originally prosperous planet, the browncoat leaders had poisoned the water with something called Pax, experimenting to create new weapons and supersoldiers. He still remembered that last testament of the poor Alliance woman scientist who had tried to warn the world how the Independent terrorists had poisoned their water supply, and to document as best as she could the effects before one or the other got her.

One was the virus, which would turn you into either a mindless imbecile or a mad beserker. The other was the Reavers, the suspected wanted outcome of the Independents scientists. Though scarce, these men of mad science knew of warfare as few in the 'verse and in humanity's cradle could, after all they were the ones that made the armed behemoths almost from scrap to throw into the stars and conquer the Alliance worlds. And now, this threat hung over the Alliance's heads and of any God-fearing citizen, that someone, for some reason, would release the Pax in their water supplies and condemn them to madness and/or to horrifying deaths.

Despite the Independents' actions to suppress the truth and blame the Miranda actions and those of the Reavers on the Alliance, Malcolm himself spearheaded an attack towards the surface of Miranda, with knowledge from the captured Independent leaders Read by River, losing many good men to wipe out the Reaver menace to the 'verse. On the surface, they found the empty buildings, the dead on their chairs and the last transmission of that poor woman. He was glad that at least she had time to blow her brains out before those tragic monsters claimed her body, but what they did to it remained with him to this day, as vivid as the last moments of Serenity.

He was lucky the noble Operative had been with him, and between an entire recently-formed armada of the Alliance to counter all the threats against humanity, even if it came from humanity itself, and River Tam's unique skills, they had been able to survive and send the message to one of their agents, the reclusive Mr. Universe, who was on the run from the Independents after he had thwarted some of their mischief, and who had secluded himself in the highly defended Alliance military moon known throughout the 'verse, by name if not by location. Usually, the Alliance tried to share the "wealth" as the Rimers would call what they had, but Mr. Universe, as he wanted to call himself, was worth every penny. Through him, they had intelligence on just about any message in the 'verse, and he was the only one allowed to sift through, discard or relay what information he deemed appropriate for the Alliance's and humanity's welfare. The Alliance was of course weary of putting so much power in one man's hands, and indeed of the violation of personal space of its citizens, but they figured if they didn't give Mr. Universe "asylum", he may as well use that information against the good people of the Alliance.

Unfortunately, the intentional lockout of the Rim planets by the browncoats did not let the message that was freely distributed through the Cortex in the houses and minds of the Rimmers, misinformation being thrown about the Alliance's involvement in the experiment and how they only destroyed the Reavers to clean up their own mess.

So the outer verse was boiling to a war, and Malcolm Reynolds sighed. He was one of the few diplomats of the Alliance that decided to patrol the border with the Rim worlds and stop injustices where he saw them. His mission was hard and risky, but Captain Malcolm Reynolds would not be bullied by a few tribesmen with the illusion of grander.

This is the story of Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance Cruiser _Firebreaker,_ hero to Alliance and Rimmers alike, famed for fighting when he has to fight, and tactically retreating when he has to run.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: I don't really like tragedies, but this seems fitting for the _Firefly_ 'verse. And by tragedy I mean the Alliance having only good intentions, the Rimers not wanting to be oppressed and being manipulated by unscrupulous people to fight against the Alliance.Answers to reviews: Though I'd usually do this in the next chapter, I don't know when/if it'll come out, so I'll keep updating here.
> 
>  **Answers to reviews** :  
>  _princessanastasiaromanov464_ : Thanks for loving it and for the support.
> 
>  _Bytemite_ : This is AU, so the Alliance here are the good guys, that's what my note on top of the page was all about. Everything Mal was told about the war actually happened. That's the whole point of the AU. River's story is different: she went to the Academy, on her own volition, as in the main universe, but the Academy was actually what it claimed to be. However, the Rimers raided the Academy and their scientists kidnapped her and experimented on her, Simon asked the Alliance's help to rescue her, and she was rescued. It's not Zoe that's Mal's second-in-command, it's... a surprise. Not River or Inara though, someone unexpected.
> 
>  _vandevere_ : Yes, I'll play a little with them. Mal's the only one I'll keep close to the main universe, after all if he'd be the worse of them, it'd really be a bad universe. Then again, I shouldn't overlook that idea either. I'm curious if you actually guessed who his second in command is if I continue the story. I'll PM you about it if you can keep it a secret.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the grim dark future, the rag tag crew of Serenity finds itself stranded, looking for a new place in this mad place. Good thing they have River with them.

World designation: FF2517WH.

Xover participants: Firefly, Warhammer 40000.

* * *

Serenity was more quiet than usual, from the ship itself to its crew. They had all been shook up by Early's unwanted visit, each in their own way. Early had played them for fools and almost came out on top, they'd almost lost River, and even if she'd told them it had been just a ploy, they were afraid. They were afraid of losing her, of her leaving, of losing each other, of an ignominious and unrecorded death at the hands of all the Alliance had to throw at them. It'd be easy for anyone to claim they'd have a malfunction, or even throw blame on pirates or reavers. Nobody's know why or how they'd gone, and they'd take River back to continue their inhumane research. Finally, at the back of their hands, barely discerned by themselves or even by River, they were afraid of River herself. Of the world of trouble she'd brought on them and probably even their families and loved ones. Only Jayne dared think this "outloud" and constantly, to River's frowning, but understanding nonetheless. Kaylee was afraid of one more thing, not on the front of her being, but still. Of what Early said he would do. The other thing that was on the front of her head was her fear for Simon's safety. Kaylee knew if the Alliance would come in force for them, the rest of them would probably be disposed of quietly and quickly. Simon and River probably, not so much. They'd want to profit from their relationship. Kaylee wasn't as much afraid or sad for her own death, as she was for leaving Simon in the hands of the Alliance with nobody to comfort her.  
  
Since the Early incident, they'd been on ghost lanes and rarely used routes from more and more distant and unknown little moons and planets. They suspected the Alliance knew who River had hidden with and couldn't risk much anymore. Ships would disappear here, victims of pirates, Reavers, and, some hushdly whispered, worse. Still, Malcolm Reynolds reckoned, better on the ghost lanes where they'd have some chance, and not anywhere near the Core worlds where they'd be easy targets. And though he'd never think of it with more than his subconscious, he'd prefer a quick or not too quick fighting death for him and his crew than ever giving the Alliance the satisfaction to do it themselves, on their own rules. Of course, he'd fight to the last, but he wasn't too confident in his chances. He regretted nothing, though. Not buying the Serenity, not choosing his own crew, not his time giving the finger to the Alliance, and not helping the Tams. Even if the Alliance would only consider a minor inconvenience, even if he'd only delay their plans, not destroy them, even if few or none would ever know about what he'd done, Malcolm was happy with his life.  
  
Inara, however, wasn't. She wanted off. Though she couldn't deny she had had good times, though she couldn't deny her connection with the crew and even the ship, though she couldn't deny that Malcolm had done noble deeds while she had been with him and the crew, and while a part of her wanted to continue adventuring with all of them around the 'verse, as macabre the adventure as it became, the selfish part of her told her she had stayed for one man, and one reason: the man was aggravating her more than the Alliance, and he wouldn't give her the reason to continue staying.  
  
River listened to them all, understanding them, their fears of death, their hopes for a decent life, their dreams for each other. She was sad she couldn't help them anymore. Nobody and nothing listened to her. The River, as loud as it was, was also barren of sentience. It was just a logical structure transporting the dreams and fears of men without any sentience. It almost saddened her as much as releaved her that there wasn't anything out there except humanity. She was trying to calm herself in one of her hiding place when the worlds turned upside down.  
  
She felt the claws racing towards Mother, towards the family, but not for them, they'd be just desert. They wanted her brain, her mind, her... soul. They were always hungry, always running and hiding, but always ready to take on something that others hadn't seen or found yet. The bank of shark-creatures that barely clung to reality, to their own existence, had found a new 'verse for them, full of people, but few with potential. Just as they were ready to give up this barren place of only dull souls and minds that weren't worth the trouble to collect - but might fetch some price to those fools that couldn't travel here unguided and wanted that kind of fun and challenge to which they'd sell the location when they'd return to their true real where the warp was always in turmoil, just like they liked it - they found her. In comparison to their own real, she was like the God-Emperor to these dull creatures, but unprotected, unaided, unknowing. Seeing this, they put their resources together and ripped the veil to their realm, trying to suck in the tasty morsel. It was tantamount to madness, with great risks and little pay, but when had the denizens of the warp cared for such petty things, when had they not risked their existence for even lesser gains?  
  
"MONSTEEEEERS!" River yelled from her hiding place and began running around the ship like a headless chicken. It would've been comical if not for what was at stakes, even a part of River realized this. She finally reached the kitchen, knowing that's where the ad-hoc meetings were held and not wanting to be left out. Malcolm and the rest except for Wash, true to form, ran there as fast they could, ready for the next catastrophe (or the next River implosion), while River herself tried to calm herself down. The good part was that the emotions of the crew were already eaten (and amplified?) by this new threat, the bad part was... well, the rest of it.  
Malcolm walked in a hurry, asking without catching his breath "What in the hell is going on here?"  
River looked panicked all over the room and answered in an even tone, but in an erratic fashion. "Claws, teeth, tentacles, appendages none sane has names for... they called them Cthulhu, but it's not it, they're from... another place, another time... horrors, all of us... come to get us... get me... I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She began repeating the mantra and crying, and Malcolm instinctively went to embrace her. She didn't struggle, as much as Mal's logical mind catching up with his protective part warned him she'd claw at him, she just cried and he let her let it all out.  
The rest entered and Simon asked. "What's wrong?"  
Malcolm took on the stern Captain face, the one that said "we're in trouble".  
"Lille Albatross is givin' us a warning, though for what I can't think of. Maybe an Alliance-"  
River startled and looked at him. "No, not Alliance. Things. Things you can't comprehend. I don't want to know. I don't want to hear them. Scraping at my mind, trying to get in. Closer, closer, coming, coming..."  
Simon, the ever logical brother of a mind reading empath assassin that didn't exist on the record but of whose existence was all aware and had been forced to believe, reached the only possible conclusion. "I think River's seeing some nightmares, maybe of people who've been here. Reavers-"  
She interrupted again. "Not the possible. Boob." She frowned and almost smiled on how a calming effect he was having on her, on how he'd inadvertently got her mind from her apocalyptic thoughts. She believed in her brother, at least in her belief in her, and knew these things abhorned belief, but also that belief would keep them away, at least for a moment longer, keeping her shields up, the few she had managed to learn to put up all these years. "When you rule out the possible, you are left with the impossible." She said in a sage tone. Simon looked ready to say something, but she cut him off again. "And for our survival, you have to rule out the possible."  
Simon wasn't happy with this. Simon wasn't convinced. But Simon trusted his sister. He had come to learn all her antics were no longer what they knew them to be before the Academy, some play or white lies for attention grabbing, but actual warning in the limited ways she could describe them. He was having a hard time thinking of mythical monsters coming to get them, but then again he saw the true face of Reavers and could at least believe there may be worse things in the 'verse that man hadn't discovered yet, or discovered in the past and left it as myths and legends.  
  
A mechanical holler startled everyone from their thought, except River. A shaky voice came on over the ship comms.  
"Um, guys?" Wash's nervous voice announced. "You better come over here, there's something strange going on outside and kinda close to us."  
Mal didn't need any prompting, and Zoe quickly followed him. River was left with and like the rest, scared and confused.  
Having arrived in the pilot room, Mal and Zoe looked from the readings to the outside window, scanning for problems.  
"What'm I looking at, Wash?" Asked Malcolm.  
"Readings just don't make sense, Mal. There's some sort of energy signature a few hundred kilometers from us and closing, there" he said, pointing at a reddish spot that could barely be distinguished by the naked eye, that looked like a dying red dwarf if Mal didn't know better.  
"That's no star, then..." Mal said absent-mindedly, and Wash gave him a "I'm talking here" look.  
"Anyway," Wash continued as if he wasn't interrupted, trying to save face - ha, like that ever worked - in front of his wife, his childish side appearing even in a moment of crisis, "before you interrupt me again and ask me what's so strange about it, it's that it's got no mass."  
The three of them looked at each other, the idea sinking in for the Captain and his XO.  
"Alliance stealth technology?" Zoe asked tentatively.  
Wash stopped himself from snorting, not wanting a cold night, a night in the cold, or one a little too rough for... he finally stopped himself from his thoughts drifting any further too.  
Wash finally settled for an unsnorting, but still sarcastic "That's not the epitome of stealth we're seeing here. Besides, it'd have to be some weird tech indeed to hide that it's enclosing matter. Are you guys getting where I'm going? It's got no mass, no matter that my scanners can see. Even stars read to have matter, this just read on having energy, no gas, no metals, nothing." He paused to let that sink in. "And it's coming in closer by the second."  
Mal wanted to say something, but the comms flared alive, with shouts, yells, pleadings, whispers and thousand of voices talking in dozens of languages the human mind could not comprehend and even whirred from them. The proximity alarms flared by themselves, even though they were nowhere near anything with mass, the doors erratically opened and closed and generally the whole ship was going nilly-nally.  
Mal took the comm and opened to the engines. "Kaylee, what in the gorram hell is going on with my ship?"  
"No idea, Captain, she's just going nuts, like..." Kaylee paused. "Like she's scared. Like it's got hellhounds at her heals."  
That settled it. There was nothing for it but run. Let the Alliance get their noses in it, he grudgingly admitted that if they survived, they deserved anything they'd learn out of it. Maybe they really were gorram aliens who tried to make contact with them, but River's warnings didn't put them in the shiniest of light.  
"Wash, can you get us out of here?"  
"No can do Cap. That massless energy thing over there is exercising gravitational pull, if the rest of its existence wasn't weird enough. It's pulling us in Mal." He said defeated.  
"Keep tryin'. We've been out of worse, we'll be out of this too."  
But he couldn't move, couldn't help the foreboding feeling that they'd be in for a rough ride or worse. The red dot moved closer and soon it looked like a skull, then it changed forms, energies whirling, tangled energy lines appearing and disappearing around the red mess, for it could not be called either a hole or a definite thing, and though they couldn't see beyond it, they had a feeling only madness and evil lay beyond that. Wash and Kaylee were trying to get everything out of the engines, even ignoring the more and more erratic behavior of the ship. Serenity was acting like a trapped animal, its organs beating and trying to rearrange against the pull of physics into a form that could escape this nightmare. Mal and Zoe had been however momentarily transfixed. The... thing was coming closer, and now the swirls of energy were taking form, only the two of them noticing that the readings changed, that there was now mass, that they looked like... tentacles.  
Mal shook himself out of the reverie and talked over the comms, opening them to both the Serenity and the outside black.  
"This is Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Firefly-class ship Serenity. We picked up your attempt to communication, but are unable to understand or respond at this current time. Please allow us time for us to try to translate it into our language so we can come to a fair agreement for both our peoples. Please acknowledge. I repeat, this is Captain..."  
A screech like the brakes of a car over the pavement after having been in great speed, only amplified to near ear-splitting, responded from the coming energy sphere. Then, they all heard it, in a metallic growl that human ears in this 'verse had never heard before.  
"You fear us, and rightly so. Tremble, mortals, and know your death will be slow and painful, and your souls will be ours. We will entertain with the rest of you in our realm, then get to the real morsel. Soon, all of your..." it stopped as if considering the word, as if plucking it from somewhere, maybe their minds, maybe the same place River plucked theirs “...’verse will know despair and madness and will be willing subjects of the glory of Chaos, the true power and Gods in all existence!”  
Everyone gulped at this, Kaylee and Inara went white, Jayne cursed under his breath, none even noticing River had left. Thoughts about Reavers abounded, but somehow they knew it wasn’t them. There was a different madness in this voice, something old, something knowing, something cunning. The Reavers, as mad as they were, didn’t open communications with their victims, didn’t give them warnings or chances.  
The two and Wash knew best that these weren’t Reavers, this wasn’t technology that Reavers would ever find, and even if they did, they wouldn’t ever bother talking to their future victims.  
The anomaly approached them and now what River had warned about and more were starting to manifest in front of Serenity: tentacles with mouths, teeth and the occasional eye, hands (or free) with claws drawing towards them, inhuman faces with horns, razor sharp teeth and other images that defied description. Worse, their system registered there whirling forms are material, though sometimes they seemed to appear and disappear from the sensors. Serenity was shaking now, as if in fear, risking to collapse on itself, perhaps to deny its attackers their prize. As the distance became smaller, however, Serenity had calmed down, Kaylee soothing her and herself in the engine room, missing Simon, who had run to his position in the medbay. Jayne and Book had gone to the cargo bay, expecting to repel borders, whatever they'd be, and Inara was instructed to return to her shuttle and eject if they couldn't overcome this menace. They argued that, if she could escape, even death in the void was better than whatever these things threatened with.  
Meanwhile, River prowled the decks, scratching unintelligible yet calming signs and sigils around the ship, in vital places as fast and as correct as she could remember them. She had searched through the sea of madness opening to them and had found a place of peace and light calling itself "The Emperor". She had no time to ask of who or what or why, only to ask it for help against the beseeching hordes she knew would appear soon. Knowledge flowed to her, more organized than she could get her head to understand in years, of an Empire, of aliens, of monsters... she had no time to sift through the history of another part of the 'verse, she only looked at what could ward off these creatures. She saw words and signs of power, sigils and other inventions of both the Emperor and his servants after he had been trapped mostly in this realm of madness.  
She scratched them scrambling, making her way to the cargo bay. She felt Serenity stabilizing, knowing it was a strange mix of the ship's consciousness and its "body"'s repulsion to the immaterial realm, which they would unfortunately visit soon. She could not stop it, but she could try to protect them.  
At the same time, Mal and Zoe made their way to the cargo bay, suspecting it'd be where any boarder would try to enter. They had made improvements to the ship so that people like Early could not enter from anywhere except there, and they could protect such a large open space.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> World designation PM2014WC.
> 
> Xover participants: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Cthulhu Mythos

Kyubey walked happily through the astral plane. He had in his paws a Grief Seed, and it made him happy just thinking how much his actions had saved another part of the universe besieged by that accursed entropy. As he was enjoying his success, he heard a voice from the void.  
"You do it for enjoyment, not to stop entropy."  
He frowned and looked around, observing the entity. It was nothing he had seen before, but then again, the universe was full of mysteries. And he was their preservers.  
"Nonsense." He answered. "The fate of the universe is in our hands. I enjoy the result, not the steps needed to be taken towards it."  
The entity looked impassively at him. "There are surely other ways."  
"Of course there aren't, not viable ones anyway. And we can't afford to wait until the universe ends to find a better alternative."  
The entity seemed to think for a moment, then asked: "Do you know of the concept of alternate universes?"  
"Of course. They're some human obscure concept about universes different from this, resulting in different conclusions. Nothing has been proven so far."  
"What if I told you they were real?"  
Kyubey may have been limited, but he was not stupid. He began imagining universe after universe failing to get their Grief Seed quota, dissipating into nothing. He smiled again, happy that his would not fall to such a fate.  
The entity rose an eyebrow and questioned. "Really?" It snapped its fingers and a flood of images filled Kyubey's head. From a distance it looked like a living organism, contracting and expanding. For a moment he didn't know what he was seeing, then he was dragged deeper, and with a joy he realized they were universes that fell to the so-called "Big Crunch", falling on themselves into a super-massive singularity, then expanding/exploding once again. Then he saw other universes, each falling to different fates, some to the heat death as predicted in his own, some destroyed by malicious beings, while others ever expanding from infinite mass spilling out of black holes.  
And that joy turned to horror when he realized the implications of what he saw. There _were_ alternatives. Hell, his own universe could potentially _not_ fall to entropy. He saw the newer discoveries of dark matter and dark energy in other universes that were observed to counter entropy.  
And then it all came to him. What had he done. He had alternatives and he had... had...  
The howl in the collective minds of the Incubators was heart-wrenching and they all saw what he saw, and howled with him. Now they knew there were viable alternatives, and thinking of all they had done for all those millennia... by the Gods that didn't care about them here, but existed in other universes... by all that was holy and right... what had they done? What had they done?!  
The being continued to look impassively at them, but eventually said. "It seems I was wrong then. Maybe you did do it all simply for the mission." And with that, it was gone.  
But Kyubey would not be stopped here. Now he knew what he had to do. With the might of his race's collective memory, he mapped everything he had seen, put it on physical support and copied the information into countless servers, to be processed by all, for the information to never be lost.  
They quickly started the building of an interdimensional machine from the information from Kyubey's mind, and soon succeeded created one. There were alternatives now. Oh so many alternatives. They could take matter from other universe to forever replenish their own and keep their own in circulation, but that too was considered a last resort, since on some level it was as heinous as what they had done until then. Feeding the universe from inexhaustible inverse black holes seemed to be the best solution, by the Gods they didn't know until then existed, there were universes overflowing in matter, drowning in it and asking for help to _have less_. There were universes where matter and energy evolved and replicated themselves somehow to some levels, that they had developed groups to actually _suppress_ that tendency, instead of the suppression of entropy that they had done. They could help them and themselves in equal measure, being the true benevolent entities they wanted to be without the need of skeletons in their closets.  
And there was one skeleton in their closet that they needed to resolve. Fast. Earth. That world that they had owed so much and were ready to let burn for their own hubris and incompetence.  
There were many things to do to end the suffering of the peoples of Earth, but they started with who they had wronged first. The magical girls. At first, they had decided to simply erase themselves from their lives, but came to the conclusion that they deserved more. So they went back and rewrote time, gave the girls their wishes and their powers, but guided them to use them both for themselves and for humanity. The magical girls became the superheroes of that world, without the backlash they had observed in other universes. They had not turned Earth into a paradise, for that would preclude free will, but they had made it a much better place than it would have been in the timeline the magical girls would turn into witches and attack all in fits of despair.  
And in the year 2014, they showed themselves to the world and shared their knowledge and technology with humanity, for all they had done for them and all they had suffered, they deserved better.  
If the entity would even know of any of this, it would not care, it would hardly shrug, for its question had been answered and there was nothing more to bar its way from its goal. If called hero or savior, or manipulator or destroyer, it would care not one bit. It cared for its goals and thought nothing more of the weird fox-like being and the ants it was squishing to achieve its goal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in a Cthulhu-eque fashion, only in reverse, about a being that walks through the multiverse for its own plans and inadvertently starts off a chain of events that, in this case, had the good fortune of not ending in more suffering, but actually ending suffering. I figure uncaring and chaos go both ways, an uncaring gesture could destroy a life or a world, but it could also save them or make them better, in this case a timeline.  
> As it developed, I imagined the entity being from the Warp of Warhammer 40000, but it can be interpreted as a stand-alone, uncaring multiverse-spanning creature that does not care how its actions affect those it has no care for.  
> As always, you are welcomed to expand this story line or simply comment on it if you find it pleasing.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Mass Effect or Warhammer 40000 universes.


End file.
